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In 2005, federal authorities concluded that a Monsanto consultant had visited the home of an Indonesian official and, with the approval of a senior company executive, handed over an envelope stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. The money was meant as a bribe to win looser environmental regulations for Monsanto’s cotton crops, according to a court document. Monsanto was also caught concealing the bribe with fake invoices. A few years earlier, in the age of Enron, these kinds of charges would probably have resulted in a criminal indictment. Instead, Monsanto was allowed to pay $1 million and avoid criminal prosecution by entering...

In another apparent effort to prepare Marylanders for looming tax increases, Gov. Martin O'Malley released a recorded statement to radio stations suggesting corporations and higher-income earners will be among those asked to pay more. "When given a choice between decline and progress, the people of Maryland always choose to make progress," O'Malley (D) says in the message, which runs more than two minutes and was sent to more than 50 radio stations, an aide said. "Together we can overcome the deficit in our path, and we can get our fiscal house in order in a way that improves our state...

In a recent study by Gallup, almost ninety percent of Americans said they believe gay people should have equal rights in the workplace. Interestingly, only forty-seven percent of these same people believe that being gay is "morally acceptable." So what has convinced nearly nine out of ten people across the country that gays and lesbians deserve equality at work even when they don't believe gay is OK? Charting a course unplanned but nevertheless successful, Corporate America is shaping up to be the most persuasive gay activists of the decade. How are they doing it? With a simple three-step formula: credibility...

Caesar Calls in the Chips By Dr. Greg Dixon Pastor Mark Holick and Evangelist Bill Keller are bold as lions, more than most Baptist preachers we know, even though their actions may fall into the “zeal without knowledge” category. Both find themselves in a running battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the content of their sermons and the direction that they believe God is leading them to conduct their ministries. Holick (31) is the Senior Pastor of the Spirit One Christian Center of Wichita, Kansas and Keller (40) conducts a non-profit TV and internet ministry in Tampa, Florida. As...

Top of page PAID TIME OFF WITH 10 YEARS' TENURE Country/Region Minimum Paid Vacation Days Paid public holidays Total Australia 20 11 (avg.) 31** Austria 25 13 38 Belgium 20 10 30 Bulgaria 20 12 32 Canada 10 10 (avg.) 20 Cyprus 21 15 36 Czech Rep. 20 11 31 Denmark 25 10 35 Egypt 21 16 37 Estonia 28 10 38 Finland 30 14 44 France 30 10 40 Germany 24 10 34 Greece 25 12 37 Hong Kong 14 12 26 Hungary 23 (if over thirty-one yrs old) 10 33 India 12 19 31 Indonesia 12 13 25...

My son, in high school, is watching "The Corporation" in history class. And as he decsribes it, it is very biased and anti big business. So he's been the only one in class to spout off. I haven't seen it and all reviews on the Internet just say how great it is. Has anyone seen it? And can anyone provide a couple of good rebuttals to help balance the class discussions? Thanks

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2006 – Target Corporation, a national retailer, has taken aim at a Washington area troops support group, providing it with a $20,000 donation, the founder and president of Our Military Kids said. “I actually approached Target to see if they, as a corporation, would be interested in providing us with any financial support for our program,” Linda Davidson said. “They … evaluated the program and came back to us and said they would be very interested in helping to support the fine-arts portion of our grant program.” Our Military Kids, Inc., works to ensure children of deployed...

SHANGHAI, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Fuyao Group Glass Industries Co. Ltd. (600660.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), China's biggest auto glass maker, is set to bid for North American glass making assets of Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research), two sources familar with the matter said. Automotive Component Holdings LLC, a parts subsidiary of Ford, is discussing the sale of glass manufacturing operations and other assets as part of the U.S. auto maker's restructuring. Fuyao has held two rounds of talks with Ford and has been selected to submit a final bid for the glass assets, a source told Reuters. The...

The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California launched a task force focused on stock-options backdating by companies, ratcheting up the government's probes of possible manipulation of a form of executive pay... Federal prosecutors around the country and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating more than 50 companies because executives received options grants at low prices just before steep jumps in company share prices. Investigators suspect companies may have backdated, or otherwise changed, the timing of options to make them more lucrative. An option gives its holder the right to buy shares at an exercise price -- typically...

I attended a recent Investment in China and India Summit hosted by Financial Research Associates. I will use this forum to share some of insights that were given at this summit for the benefit of those hoping/thinking/planning on investing in an Asian country -- China, India, or Japan. Growth Capital- Dominant type of fund in Asia by number, especially in country-focused funds; focused on backing firms that are already established but are looking for capital to support strong growth. Buyouts- True control buyouts are a more recent phenomenon in Asia. Most funds focused on buyouts are larger Pan-Asian funds or...

Apollo Group is the biggest of the ForPro education groups. It owns the University of Phoenix. Yesterday its stock fell 2 percent after reporting lower third-quarter profits because of higher costs. Corinthian Colleges is another of the big players. It, too, reported a loss of 3 cents/share. DeVry lost 15 cents, and Educational Services lost 3 cents/share as well. Everybody's trading down, albeit down very little. Does this mean that the quality of education provided by these groups has also dipped? Are students losing out 2% on their classes? or 3 cents/dollar they spend on their tuition? Hardly. One of...

Jack Welch gives advice on how the new graduate can succeed in American companies. It seems to be good advice to succeed in any company -- anywhere. His number one piece of advice: OVERDELIVER - This is very un-American -- and very un-student-like. In school, students learn to meet certain objectives -- answer certain questions within certain time parameters. In the workforce -- it's not that way anymore. To get an A+ in business, Welch says, a person -- 22 years old or 62 years old -- needs to: 1. Expand the organization's expectations of what you can do --...

Author Jerome Corsi filed a Freedom of Information Act request yesterday asking for full disclosure of the activities of an office implementing a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that apparently could lead to a North American union, despite having no authorization from Congress. Corsi specifically has requested the partnership's membership lists, constitutive documents, meeting minutes, meeting agendas and meeting schedules as well as all findings, reports, presentations or memoranda. He also wants all comments to representatives of the "Prosperity Working Groups" or other working groups, committees or task forces associated with the partnership along with internal and external interagency...

Berkery, Noyes & Co. LLC is a leading independent investment bank that provides M & A services to the global information, publishing, and IT sectors. The group has been involved as an advisor for most major transactions, buying and/or selling, related to the education market in recent years. 1. National Geographic Society bought Hampton-Brown Co. 2. ProQuest bought Voyager Expanded Learning. 3. Touchstone Applied Science Associates just purchased Questar Educational Systems. I reckon Berkery, Noyes figures it better get someone on board who knows something about post-secondary schools and other forms of higher-ed, including the fopros. So, they have hired...

Sakhalin Island is a remote and sparsely populated area in the farthest east section of Russia. It sits to the north of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido. Its ports freeze over part of each year because, well, it is so dang cold. But Sakhalin is where the future may lie -- at least for Russia's big oil. The island is about 600 miles long -- about the length of California but about one/fourth the size -- and there are an estimated 45 billion barrels of oil equivalent that lie beneath its seas. California probably has that much, too, but the...

Yahoo is planning to pony up $60 million to buy a 10% share in South Korea's No 2. online retailer GMarket. South Korea has one of Asia's fastest growing e-commerce industries. Yahoo will buy its steak, I mean, stake from the venture capital firm Oak Investment Partners. It seems Oak Investment is the only significant outside institutional investor in GMarket...in other words, Yahoo had to go through them to get their foot in the door. Yahoo's COO, Dan Rosenweigg, said, "GMarket's strength in e-commerce complements the strong offerings we already provide in the Korean market across communications, content, and search...

I read that it used to cost about $70 on average for a computer geek to walk from cubicle to cubicle to install the needed software on individual PCs at different work stations. Now, IBM has 200 people in Toronto running a software installation factory for clients worldwide. Packages are delivered over the Internet to machines at 20 cents per PC. Whoa! Big difference! Giants in the PC market don't have the luxury of making gradual changes in the way they do things anymore. Indian companies have rewritten the rules of competition - because Indians can do it cheaper and...

Well, what do you know, Japan came up with an idea first, and it's America's turn to chase it. It's called design barcoding. A Tokyo-based company customizes bar codes for Japanese companies such as Wacoal, an apparel maker. Now, it wants to bring its business stateside. The idea is have bar codes with logos or images. These days, self-checkout counters are becoming hot, and millions of eyes are noticing those little lines as they turn and aim them at the scanner. Interesting idea, eh? Media buzz in Japan gave companies like Pacarc plenty of free publicity on the matter. I...

The first high-level research center opened by Microsoft was in Cambridge, England. The second was in Beijing. The research and development center that was established in Beijing has served as a model center for the company as it expands to countries like India (last year) and Russia (??). Long before multinational companies had started taking China seriously, Microsoft was already there, thinking of China as NOT just a potential market, but as a source of talent. Microsoft often takes a beating for its bully attitude. What should be said about its attitude for being a forward thinker in developing countries?...

Jeff Immelt, GE Chairman, thinks more about China than how much money his company can make in China...though I am sure that is always in the back of his mind. "Not only do I view China as a market, but I also view it as a center of excellence in technology and manufacturing that can benefit all of our products all around the world," he said. Hear that? China has good quality engineers and scientists and they have a contribution to make to the world. GE has nearly 13,000 employees in China. Some of these employees plan to focus on...

Aleksei Mordashov, the CEO of Russian Steel Co. Severstal says he is befuddled by his proposed $16.5 Billion deal with the steel giant Arcelor. "The deal would create the world's largest steel company with a 6% of global production," Mordashov says. It would also give him a 32% share of the new company his critics say. Arcelor, apparently is a national treasure in the European countries where it operates - Fance and Belgium. Another company, Mittal, wants to buy out Arcelor and the Arcelor board doesn't like that idea either. It sounds to me like they just don't want to...

Toyota is planning to voluntarily recall about 2/3 of the Prius cars they have made. Someone in Japan learned that when you turn the steeling wheel and drive real slow into a curb, it can break something in the steering mechanism. Trust me, you drive very slowly in Japan a lot, with the steering wheel turned all the way the left or right. Usually, its bad business for a car company to do something like this. However, Toyota is sucking it up, making the changes on their own dime BEFORE a tire blows out, or a car rolls over and...

Labor leaders in Korea are not disappointed to see Hyundai CEO, Chung Mong Koo, take a fall. What union leaders ( I hate unions ) hope for is that this will give Hyundai Motors a chance to make another leap forward because they will be out from under the 'emperor-like' rule of Chung. Hyundai is the world's number 7 auto-maker and Chung now owns 5.2% of it from jail. Though he owned such a small portion he had near absolute control and was even said to be a micro manager to the point of deciding what color the parts under...

IBM is staffing up in low-cost countries. To know one's surprise two of those countries are India and China. One more country is Brazil and IBM is also taking aim at Eastern Europe. But just how much is IBM depending on these countries and for what? Eastern Europe - IBM has grown from 2,900 workers to 5,125 workers since 2003. Eastern Europe provides data centers, service skills centers and Linux development labs. The work force in Brazil has doubled since 2003 - 4,500 to 9,000 and they are providing data centers, call centers and Linux development. The Chinese work force...

There are many things to like about work — the collegiality, the productivity, the paycheck — but few people would include meetings in the list. Monotonous, time-consuming, often pointless, meetings can be to workdays what speed bumps are to main thoroughfares: annoying, well-intentioned impediments to progress. Now researchers have examined how an endless series of meetings can affect employees' sense of well-being and job satisfaction. In a report published recently in the Journal of Applied Psychology, researchers found that more people acknowledge meetings as a positive part of their days at work than they would ever publicly admit. The results...

Rejoice gaming fans, for the latest new “feature” of Blizzard Entertainment’s smash hit multi-player online videogame World of Warcraft is here! No, it’s not a new Sword of Destruction or Staff of Power—it’s spyware! Yes, unbeknownst to many gamers, World of Warcraft now has an unwanted special feature—a hidden program called “Warden” that snoops gamers’ computers looking for any "unauthorized third-party program" that “enables or facilitates cheating of any type.” According to Greg Hoglund, co-author of "Exploiting Software, How to Break Code," this hidden program opens every process on a gamer’s computer, from email programs to privacy managers, and sniffs...

On the latter development, Sunday’s Boston Globe ran a front page story (read below in full) under the triumphant title “Thousands in Massachusetts to get cheaper oil”. The subheading states that “[Congressman Willliam] Delahunt, Chávez help broker deal”, and the story goes on to inform us that according to Citizens Energy Corp, “the approximately $9 million deal will bring nine million gallons of oil to [45,000] families and three million gallons to institutions that serve the poor, such as homeless shelters”.

We've heard all the horror stories about the retail giant. They're just not true. STEVE MAICH There's a place on the western edge of Cleveland that encapsulates the story of the city -- its proud industrial past, its slow depressing decline, its hopes for a brighter future. But the battle now being waged over that patch of land tells an even bigger tale. It's called the steelyard flats, a 130-acre plot of barren wasteland at the intersection of Interstates 90 and 71, in what was once the heart of Cleveland's thriving steel industry. The site has sat idle since 2000,...

NEW ORLEANS (CBS) Every day, Philip and Sharon Watson discover something else they have lost. First, it was their house. Then they lost an aunt in one of the nursing home tragedies. And now, Sharon, who has been a teacher in New Orleans for 27 years, has lost her job. "When I was told, it hit me like 'boom'," Sharon Watson said. "I have no more tears." Watson is one of thousands in New Orleans that have lost jobs. CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts reports that in some communities, more people are out of work than have jobs. Economists estimate...

<p>Like a growing number of employees, Peter Whitney decided to launch a blog on the Internet to chronicle his life, his friends and his job at a division of Wells Fargo.</p> <p>Then he began taking jabs at a few people he worked with.</p>

Preferences on the basis of race, ethnicity, and sex — a.k.a. “affirmative action” — are found principally in three areas: education (notably university admissions), contracting (like minority set-asides), and employment (both public and private). For a variety of reasons, employment preferences — particularly in the private sector — have proved harder to uncover than the others. This is too bad, because sunlight is the best disinfectant: If preferences are exposed, they will often be abandoned, because corporate general counsels know that they can get the company into legal hot-water, no matter how much the politically correct human-resources types push them.It...

UNC Asheville will host two human rights events on Saturday, April 2, in UNC Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall. Human Rights Watch Special Counsel Reed Brody will discuss “From Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib: Getting Away with Torture” at noon. A screening of “The Corporation” will follow at 2 p.m. Events are free and open to the public. Brody is special counsel at Human Rights Watch, the largest American human rights organization. He is author of the recent HRW reports, “The Road to Abu Ghraib,” which examines the roots of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, and “The United States’ ‘Disappeared,’ ” which...

Naomi Klein, writing in The Nation magazine asks the question, "Can Democracy Survive Bush's Embrace?" Klein writes, “It started off as a joke and has now become vaguely serious: the idea that Bono might be named president of the World Bank.” Bono talks to Republicans as they like to see themselves: not as administrators of a diminishing public sphere they despise but as CEOs of a powerful private corporation called America. "Brand USA is in trouble...it's a problem for business." The solution is "to re-describe ourselves to a world that is unsure of our values." Klein continues, “The Bush Administration...

On Jan. 20, 2005, J.P. Morgan Chase announced that it had completed research to determine whether it had any links to slavery. Its website (www2.bankone.com/presents/home/) announced: "Today, we are reporting that this research found that between 1831 and 1865 two of our predecessor banks -- Citizens Bank and Canal Bank in Louisiana -- accepted approximately 13,000 enslaved individuals as collateral on loans and took ownership of approximately 1,250 of them when the plantation owners defaulted on the loans." J.P. Morgan Chase went on to "apologize to the American public, and particularly to African-Americans, for the role that Citizens Bank and...

PHOENIX - The state Democratic Party illegally took about $100,000 from corporations, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. In a split decision, the judges said the donations violate state laws which specifically bar corporations and labor unions from influencing elections. The ruling, unless overturned, will require the party to refund the cash and bar it from taking similar donations in the future. (continued)

David Teather in New York Thursday August 5, 2004 The Guardian John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, published a list of about 200 entrepreneurs supporting his run for the White House, in an effort to reassure voters of his moderate credentials. The list, not unexpectedly, included endorsements from players in the entertainment and fashion industries. Among the signatories were Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein; former Hollywood mogul Barry Diller; the chairman of Warner Music, Edgar Bronfman Jr; Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg; Peter Chernin, the chief operating officer of News Corporation and Jann Wenner, chairman of Rolling Stone magazine's publisher, Wenner...

was at a health ranch last week, where the idea is to clear your mind for serene thoughts. At dinner one night, a woman at the table referred to Arizona as a "right to work state." Unwisely, I replied: "Yeah -- the right to work cheap." She said, "I think you'll find the non-union workers are quite well paid." Exercising a supreme effort of will to avoid pronouncing the syllables "Wal-Mart," I replied: "If so, that's because unions have helped raise salaries for everybody." She replied: "The unions steal their members' dues." I replied, "How much money would you guess...

No democracy please, we're shareholders   Apr 29th 2004 From The Economist print edition   Another proxy season, another gazillion wasted votes AMERICA is the world's most prominent democracy, and its most successful exponent of shareholder capitalism. But when it comes to shareholder democracy America has barely moved beyond the corporate equivalent of the rotten borough. American firms look democratic. During these past few weeks of the annual “proxy season”, shareholders have been electing board members and voting on resolutions listed on a firm's proxy statement. But given how little difference such votes can make, they might as well not...

The Founders Constitution Introduction. This is an anthology of reasons and of the political arguments that thoughtful men and women drew from, and used to support, those reasons. We believe that those reasons and political arguments have enduring interest and significance for anyone who purports to think about constitutional government in general and the Constitution of the United States in particular. For those who know in advance that thought is at bottom reducible to interest, or who regard political argument as synonymous with ideology, such a belief is at best naive. Yet we venture to assert that that belief...

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Business April 16, 2003, 11:22AM Frame by frame, Enron art to be sold By BILL MURPHY and ERIC BERGER Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg Soft Light Switches by Claes Oldenburg, part of the Enron collection, may attract bids of $700,000 or more. What Enron hoped would be a world-class collection of contemporary art promoting its cutting-edge image will go on the block next month. The first round of the auction, approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday, is scheduled for May 15-16 in New York. Up for sale will be the most...

$8 Billion Surplus Withers at Agency Insuring Pensions By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH January 25, 2003 he federal agency that insures the pensions of some 44 million Americans has been pounded by a succession of big corporate bankruptcies and has burned through its entire $8 billion surplus in one year. The agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, provides protection to retirees in case of a failure, much as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation protects depositors when a bank fails. Though it can continue to make its current payments, the agency is expected to disclose a deficit of $1 billion to $2...

           Home | Newswire | About Us | Donate | Sign-Up          Featured Views         Published on Thursday, December 26, 2002 by CommonDreams.org Sing, Dance, Rejoice—Corporate Personhood Is DoomedA Review of Thom Hartmann'sUnequal Protection: the Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights by Richard W. Behan   Unequal Protection may prove to be the most significant book in the history of corporate personhood, a doctrine which dates to 1886. For 116 years, corporate personhood has been scrutinized and criticized, but never seriously threatened. Now Thom Hartmann has discovered a...

<p>Last week's federal raid of a Massachusetts software firm raises many questions about U.S. security - not least about our "allies" in Saudi Arabia. The firm, Ptech Inc., is said to have held millions of dollars in contracts with clients including the White House, the FBI, the U.S. Air Force, and the Internal Revenue Service. Yet investigators believe top investor Yasin al-Qadi was a major financial backer of al Qaeda.</p>

* COMMENT: Unpatriotic Underwear. Dear A-Letter Reader: Odds are you've never heard of alternative girl punk band 'L-7.' Their 1997 album 'The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum' contains a song that I nominate for the attitude anthem of the current US Congress: "The Masses Are Asses." That sums up the congressional view of you and me; that we're ignorant rubes likely to fall for their posturing that passes for lawmaking. My problem is that I've been there, so I know how Capitol Hill pols think and operate, especially in an election year marked by scandal and economic uncertainty. I smell the...

China Subject to Most Restriction by US Trade Barriers Media reported recently that at the beginning of this year, the EU stopped importing China's honey in excuse of excessive antibiotic in it. Currently Japan, Canada and the United States also have intensified checks on China's honey. China's agricultural and animal products have been plagued by "green trade barriers" since the country entered into the WTO. This January Zhejiang Zhoushan's frozen shrimp meat was returned by the European countries; This February the export of bulk agricultural products, like frozen chicken, peanut and vegetable in Shandong province, dropped sharply; in the...

This should be titled"Democrats Spread Lies About Expatriation" (Note:  I took the liberty of highlighting the BIG LIE in this article.) Democrats Blast Firms Over Offshore Tax BreaksMay 18, 2002 11:15 AM ETWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats on Saturday said U.S. companies seeking to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes by moving their headquarters to offshore tax havens were "unpatriotic" and called for legislation to stop the practice."The tax dodgers may set up paper headquarters in Bermuda, but they continue operating in the United States," said Rep. Jim Maloney of Connecticut in the weekly Democratic radio address."They still receive...

May 15, 2002, 7:40AM Cooper shareholders back shift to BermudaBy NELSON ANTOSH Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Note:  I highlighted certain words and phrases in bold for later reference. Shareholders of Cooper Industries, one of Houston's largest manufacturing companies, voted 9-to-1 Tuesday to change its place of incorporation from Ohio to Bermuda. With no remaining regulatory hurdles, Cooper expects to be a Bermuda company as soon as possible after the close of business May 21. Cooper is one of several Houston companies reincorporating in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands, primarily to save on income taxes. It is a $4.2 billion-per-year company...

Cooper OKs Bermuda Reincorporation HOUSTON (AP) - Shareholders of a Houston-based manufacturer of electrical products, tools and hardware voted Tuesday to reincorporate the company in Bermuda. Cooper Industries Inc., which is incorporated in Ohio, said the reincorporation offers strategic advantages not available under the company's current structure. Plans for the reincorporation first were announced in February after hand tool maker Danaher Corp. backed away from purchasing Cooper.Cooper counts Crescent wrenches and pliers among its brands.``This change will enhance Cooper's strategic flexibility and our reduced global tax position will significantly increase cash flow - enabling us to further strengthen our balance...

<p>So now Stanley Works wants to move to Bermuda. Fed up with spiraling taxes, the Connecticut toolmaker says it's had enough.</p> <p>And a lot of people are coming down hard on old Stanley, including Connecticut's attorney general, who got the company to hold off for now, pending a legal challenge. He's mad at old Stanley.</p>

Distributed nationally on the Knight-Ridder Tribune wire Bad Tax Policy: You Can Run…By Daniel J. MitchellThe worst Supreme Court decision of all time? One of the leading candidates has to be the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that slaves did not gain freedom by escaping to non-slave states. Instead, they were considered property and had to be returned to their "owners." Some U.S. companies soon may be treated in a similar manner, thanks to legislation being touted by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. It all starts with the internal revenue...